LONDON, England (AP) -- Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Mazri has appeared in a London court on charges including encouraging the murder of Jews and other non-Muslims.

Tuesday had been set for the start of Abu Hamza's trial, but the first session was taken up with legal arguments, which are expected to continue all week. Court orders forbid any reporting of the arguments, which take place without a jury present.

Abu Hamza, wearing a blue smock and with neatly trimmed gray hair and beard, was surrounded by four guards as he stood in the dock at the Central Criminal Court.

He pleaded innocent to all charges at a hearing in January.

"From my point of view and Abu Hamza's point of view, we don't see Muslims as terrorists, we see the Western governments as the real terrorists," the cleric's spokesman, Abu Abdullah, said in a telephone interview.

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